Blog Tour: Review & Giveaway ~ Branded by Abi Ketner & Missy Kalicicki

Hey guys! Welcome to my stop on the Branded Blog Tour hosted by YA Bound Book Tours. Click here to follow along with the full tour schedule. :D

Title: Branded

Series: Sinners #1

Authors: Abi Ketner & Missy Kalicicki

Release date: June 28th 2013

252 pages

Source: Review copy

Goodreads | BookLikes

~ Synopsis ~ 

Fifty years ago the Commander came into power and murdered all who opposed him. In his warped mind, the seven deadly sins were the downfall of society. He created the Hole where sinners are branded according to their sins and might survive a few years. At best. 

Now LUST wraps around my neck like blue fingers strangling me. I've been accused of a crime I didn't commit and now the Hole is my new home. 

Darkness. Death. Violence. Pain.

Now every day is a fight for survival. But I won't die. I won't let them win.

The Hole can't keep me. The Hole can't break me. 

I am more than my brand. I'm a fighter. 

My name is Lexi Hamilton, and this is my story.

~ My Thoughts ~

BRANDED is everything I could have hoped for and more. Beautiful, haunting, and a story that will stay with me for a long time, I was left wanting more. I can't express enough how much emotion this book brought out in me, not to mention the wide array of them. There were moments I laughed and others I cried. There were moments I felt incredible injustice and others where I felt hopeful. 

Lexi is a character who is vulnerable yet strong - she's accused of Lust, branded, and sent to a prison known as the Hole. She gives bits and pieces of her former life before the accusation, and everything starts to come together as to how she was wrongly accused in the first place. She's been through hell before she was sent to the Hole, and it almost seemed like the Hole is less of a hell compared to what she went through before she got there.

Cole is one of the guards who works in the Hole, and his assignment is to keep Lexi alive. She's beautiful and seen as a whore by the other prisoners ("Sinners") and guards, and many of them want her dead. Lexi and Cole fall in love, but love between a Sinner and a guard is punishable by death. They have to keep it a secret, but others begin to catch on to their secret. I was on the edge of my seat, twisted up with anxiety that they would be found out and killed - not just because I loved both of their characters so much, but also because they would be tortured agonizingly slow before their deaths.

I felt so many different emotions while reading BRANDED and didn't want to put it down. I couldn't stop thinking about it before I went to sleep at night, and I know I'll be thinking about it for a long time - all the horrors in the Hole as well as in Lexi's life before she's accused, the hope and strength of Lexi and Cole, and the love between them. Seriously, I can't recommend this book enough. You need to grab a copy! And then wait with me for the next book to come out! 

My Rating: 5 / 5 

~ Purchase Links ~

Amazon | B&N

~ About the Authors: Abi Ketner & Missy Kalicicki ~

 

Abi and Missy met in the summer of 1999 at college orientation and have been best friends ever since. After college, they added jobs, husbands and kids to their lives, but they still found time for their friendship. Instead of hanging out on weekends, they went to dinner once a month and reviewed books. What started out as an enjoyable hobby has now become an incredible adventure.

~ Author Links ~

Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Pinterest

~ Giveaway ~

20 eBooks of Branded (mobi) Open Internationally

5 signed print copies and picture of Cole (US only) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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